Through his official Twitter account, the former player Sam Groth defended” nick kyrgios> over his actions in Cincinnati. ATP fined the Australian for $113,000 and they are still reviewing the incident and the Canberra native could even be suspended from the Tour for a certain period of time.

Groth wrote: “Does Kyrgios get suspended? My opinion is no, tennis needs him, he puts bums on seats and brings fans to tennis who wouldn’t otherwise be watching. They have thrown the book at him with fines this week.”

Meanwhile in an interview to The New York Times the golfer Rory Mcllroy compared Serena Williams’s back issues to Tiger Woods’s. In last week’s Toronto, the American tennis player was forced to retire during the final against Bianca Andreescu after playing just four games.

“I think they put themselves through it because they don’t want to let people down. You get what you give, and I think Tiger and Serena over the years have given people so much joy by playing their sport the best they can.

They want to be able to keep doing that, but it’s hard. Time catches up. People can relate to vulnerability. Serena and Tiger didn’t show any vulnerability for 20 years. Now people see that side of them and it humanizes them and it makes them more endearing”; said Mcllroy.